This is an archived snapshot of W3C's public bugzilla bug tracker, decommissioned in April 2019. Please see the home page for more details.

Bug 11495 - Harmonize 'absent' and 'undefined'; declare which properties can be absent
Summary: Harmonize 'absent' and 'undefined'; declare which properties can be absent
Status: CLOSED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: XPath / XQuery / XSLT
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Data Model 3.0 (show other bugs)
Version: Working drafts
Hardware: PC All
: P2 normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Norman Walsh
QA Contact: Mailing list for public feedback on specs from XSL and XML Query WGs
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2010-12-07 22:09 UTC by Norman Walsh
Modified: 2011-02-23 14:48 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

See Also:

Attachments

Description Norman Walsh 2010-12-07 22:09:13 UTC 
In resolving the question of terminology around namespaces, we decided to define a new term 'absent'. The definition of that term is perilously close to the definition of 'undefined', surely they could be harmonized somehow? If not, the spec should articulate the distinction more clearly.

On the subject of absent properties, we should also define which properties can be absent.
Comment 1 Michael Kay 2010-12-07 23:10:37 UTC 
I think the intent was that "absent" should replace "undefined". The term "undefined" causes confusion because in many other specs it is used with a completely different meaning, to wit "not defined in this specification".
Comment 2 Norman Walsh 2010-12-08 12:10:15 UTC 
Undefined has been removed. We may still want to identify the properties that
are allowed to be absent.